He was also charged with an “obscene act in a public place” and a protection of ancient monument law was invoked to charge him with misuse of the Konark temple where he recorded his video.

The information and technology law was also used to charge him with sending offensive messages.

Soon after posting his tweets, Mr Iyer-Mitra quickly clarified that the tweet was a joke, and the sculptures were “exquisite”. However, his bail pleas were rejected both in the lower court as well as the Supreme Court.

He also appeared to have become a pawn in a political game involving a prominent local MP who had fallen foul of the state’s chief minister, says the BBC’s Soutik Biswas.

When he made his “objectionable” video, Mr Iyer-Mitra was a guest of Baijayant “Jay” Panda, a former member of parliament who was forced out of Orissa by chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s political party. Many believe Mr Patnaik was looking to embarrass Mr Panda and the video came in handy to do just that, our correspondent says.